Inspiration – Yoshida Toshio’s Foam Works

Yoshida Toshio’s Bubble Works, 1965

I’ve been fairly obsessed with this work since I first came across it in a magazine several years ago. Foam, as a substance, as an artistic medium, is definitely compelling and worthy of quite a bit more exploration. In truth, this work has mostly just existed in my imagination, as I have never seen it in person, or even video. But the idea of it, and in it, continues to fascinate me.

I think Yoshida’s work stands out to me because it seems so full of experiment with materials. And for whatever reason, perhaps simply because I so took to his works, Yoshida also feels to me especially emblematic of many of the ideas Yoshihara Jiro first wrote about in the original Gutai-Ha manifesto. Particularly the ‘…the loud outrcry of the material.’ that Yoshihara mentions.